The Hanged Man: tarot card meaning

The Hanged Man is card XII of the Major Arcana, associated with the element of Water. Drawn upright it speaks of surrender, new perspective, pause; reversed, of stalling, indecision, martyrdom.

Upright meaning

surrender, new perspective, pause, letting go

Stillness reveals what motion was hiding -- a willing pause and a change of view can carry you further than forcing on.

Reversed meaning

stalling, indecision, martyrdom, resistance to letting go

A pause has become a stall, or sacrifice turned into martyrdom -- unhook, and stop treating waiting as heroism.

Vedic and astrological correspondence

In a three-card reading

In the past position The Hanged Man describes the current that carried you to where you are; in the present position, what is most alive in the situation now; in the future position, the direction things tend toward if nothing changes. A reading weighs it against the other two cards rather than on its own.